In 2000, Cora Cardona, the director of Teatro Hispano de Dallas asked me to create a new performance piece that would be debuted at their annual Día de Los Muertos show. They had just lost their theater space to a fire and Cardona had dreamt up the idea of setting up a huge tent in a public space to create a circus of death. The show was to be lead by an androgynous ring master and was a linked sequence of vignettes of, dance, theater, and performance art.

In creating "The Downward Climb," I did not want to depict the typical Day of the Dead imagery. I was seeking to explore the death of the soul and so I was naturally lead to continue my exploration of the corporate world and its fashion imagery.

My skull faced figure desperately tried to marry his world with that of his corporate ambitions. He deftly danced, pulling sculptural elements form his bottomless briefcase, gradually becoming more frantic until he literally faces himself and unknowingly rejects this "other" person.

Two articles were written about this show, one in the "Dallas Morning News" and another in the "Dallas Observer" can be found in PDF format below.